Labor Day

Union groups from across central New York marched in the Labor Day parade at the New York State Fair Monday morning.

The president of the New York State United Teachers federation, Karen Magee, spoke to a large crowd about the accomplishments of the labor movement including better safety conditions, weekends and the 40-hour work week. NYSUT is made up of 600,000 members who work in education, healthcare and human services.

It’s Labor Day, which marks both the unofficial end to summer as well as a day to celebrate the American workforce.

But there are half as many Americans in a labor union today as there were 30 years ago. It’s down to about one in 10 workers.

"We got to do everything we can to try and gain back that number and that’s important. We got to have the middle class again," said steelworker Brian Hoige. "It’s either the rich or the poor, there’s not really any middle class left to speak of anymore."

More New Yorkers are planning to get away for an end-of-summer weekend than have in the past six years.

Travel service AAA says nearly 35 million Americans will travel over the three-day Labor Day weekend. That's more people than have traveled since 2008, before the recession.

And the “stay-cations” of recent years past are no longer.

"The recession is really no top of mind for a lot of folks. So if they want to travel, they’re going to travel. We’ve seen a slow, steady rebound, so that’s been great news for the industry," said AAA spokeswoman Diana Dibble.